Marois bids a tearful goodbye to Quebec politics

Kevin Dougherty, GAZETTE QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF04.15.2014

“I regret nothing and I have the feeling of a job well done,” Pauline Marois said in her farewell address on Wednesday. “I am still emotional that Quebec citizens allowed me to be their premier.”Jacques Boissinot
/ The Canadian Press

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, right, welcomes premier designate Philippe Couillard Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at the premier’s office in Quebec City to discuss the transfer of power.Jacques Boissinot
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

QUEBEC — Pauline Marois, who relinquishes her post as Quebec's first female premier when Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard and his cabinet are sworn in next week, was overcome with emotion Wednesday afternoon as she read her parting statement.

"It will soon be seven years that I left my garden," Marois said, recalling her decision to end her brief retirement and seek the Parti Québécois leadership in 2007. The PQ finished third in the 2007 election, and Marois was acclaimed after André Boisclair stepped down as leader.

Marois, dubbed "the concrete lady," spoke with difficulty on Wednesday. "I read it 20 times and I still can't get through it," she said in tears before starting the sentence once more.

"Since then, many things have happened," she said, without detailing the two elections in which she fought, her narrow win in 2012 with a minority government, and along the way an attempted putsch against her leadership, the loss of five MNAs from her caucus, and a challenge from Gilles Duceppe that she overcame.

"I think, like me, you all know it wasn't always restful," Marois said. "But I regret nothing and I have the feeling of a job well done.

"I am still emotional that Quebec citizens allowed me to be their premier," she said, pausing to regain her composure.

Earlier, Marois met with Couillard and his transition team before a final meeting with her cabinet.

"There are a certain number of subjects I want to discuss with you," a smiling Marois said to Couillard after they shook hands in the corridor and entered the premier's office.

Couillard's meeting with Marois was only confirmed on Tuesday, as Marois's staff remained vague on when Couillard would be invited to discuss the transition. By contrast, Jean Charest had invited Marois to meet with him just two days after his Liberals lost power in the 2012 election.

Wednesday, Couillard was accompanied by Juan Roberto Iglesias, his choice as secretary general of the executive council, the premier's deputy minister and Quebec's highest civil servant, and former Liberal premier Daniel Johnson, who heads Couillard's transition team.

The 70 Quebec Liberals elected on April 7 will be sworn in as members of the National Assembly on Thursday, and Couillard is to announce his cabinet lineup next Wednesday or Thursday, when he will be sworn in as premier, along with his ministers.

While she announced on election night she was resigning as PQ leader, Marois clarified on Wednesday that she will remain party leader until June 7, when the PQ's council of presidents, bringing together party officials from across the province, meets to decide the PQ's future course.

She began Wednesday's statement without emotion, saying she spoke to Couillard about ensuring the transition to a new government does not delay provincial aid to victims of spring flooding.

Marois said she is happy to leave the PQ in good shape. The party boasts 90,000 members and a sound balance sheet.

She said going forward she would not comment on the governments that succeed her, and declined to give her thinking on why her PQ, which went into the election seeking a majority, lost to Couillard's Liberals, with political unknown Caroline Simard defeating Marois in her own Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré riding.

But she did say she still believes in the PQ's goal of making Quebec an independent country.

"I don't know when, I don't know how," Marois said, expressing her belief Quebec would be better off as an independent country.

"We are different. We are a nation."

In her meeting with Couillard, Marois said she hopes the new Liberal government will push ahead with her government's efforts to encourage the electrification of transport in Quebec, from electric and hybrid cars to public transit.

She also expressed to Couillard her concerns for the future of French in Quebec.

"I think we are strong enough as a people to live and develop in North America in French," Marois said. "But we need protection. Yes, I have worries about the language and I told Mr. Couillard."

She also discussed with Couillard the rapid adoption of the PQ's Bill 52, for end-of-life care. Couillard, who supports the bill, has said it would be the first priority of his government.

In her statement, Marois reviewed the accomplishments of the PQ's 18 months in office.

"Under our government, integrity advanced and corruption receded," she said, noting the PQ's Bill 1, calling on companies seeking public contracts to prove their integrity, and Bill 10, allowing the removal of an elected municipal official who is charged with a crime.

She defended two PQ bills that could not pass because of opposition to her minority government. Bill 14 would have extended francization rules, which now apply to businesses with 50 employees or more, to businesses with 26 or more employees. Bill 60, the proposed Charter of Quebec Values, would have banned the wearing of religious signs by Quebec's 600,000 public employees.

Marois noted that her government allowed students to vote where they study and said the PQ law on fixed election dates "will apply in the future to majority governments."

As opposition parties suggested, Marois was defying her own law by calling this early election.

"I am very proud of the record of our government," Marois said. "For me, it is the coronation of a lifetime commitment in the service of Quebec men and women."

Marois thanked her elected members, civil servants and staff, saying the PQ left the Liberals "an orderly house."

"Quebec is doing better," she said. "I wish Mr. Couillard the best of luck in the future.

"Quebecers have given him their confidence, clearly. He has all the legitimacy to govern Quebec and to apply his policies."

At her final cabinet meeting, four nominations were made.

On Tuesday, Iglesias, Couillard's choice as secretary general of the executive council, takes up his new post, replacing Jean St-Gelais, who was the Marois government's secretary general.

The PQ cabinet named St-Gelais president and CEO of the Commission des normes du travail, Quebec's workplace standards commission, as of next Thursday.

Also named to high positions, following the Quebec tradition when governments change, were three top advisers to Marois.

Patrick Lahaie, an unsuccessful PQ candidate in the April 7 election, was named assistant deputy minister of agriculture. Marc-André Beaulieu was named assistant deputy minister of culture and communications, and Stéphane Dolbec becomes assistant deputy minister of labour, joining St-Gelais at the Commission des normes du travail.

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